The present invention relates to a module carrier structure for the front of a vehicle.
A module carrier is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-312279. The carrier has a front panel of a vehicle, and on the front panel are mounted an engine radiator, a cooling fan and a condenser of an air conditioner. The front panel with the above components mounted thereon is secured to the front of the vehicle body by bolts or the like in the process of assembly of the vehicle.
A center upper portion of the vehicle front should have a hood lock mounting part member mounting a lock for the front hood of the vehicle. The known module carrier is integrally formed as a suction fan type and is open at the front thereof so as to allow installation and removal of the radiator, the condenser and so on into and out of the vehicle engine compartment only through the front thereof. For this reason, it is difficult to provide the mounting member on the upper central portion of the carrier structure. If the mounting member were provided on the upper central portion of the carrier structure, a complicated construction would have to be provided for reinforcement which enables withstanding the downward load from the front hood at the time of closure thereof. For that reason, two hood lock mounting members must usually be provided on the right and left upper portions of the carrier structure to mount a pair of locks or laches for the hood. As a result, the number of the components of the vehicle increases, and it is necessary to provide a synchronizing mechanism for unlocking the right and the left locks at the same time. This causes a problem in that the vehicle is made more complicated in constitution and higher in cost.